Hi, I'm Stacia, and introducing myself is an existential crisis

I'm excited to become part of this community, but after joining last week, it took me a few days to write this introductory post.

Sometimes I'm not sure who I am, see.

What I can tell you about myself that is true and certain is that I am a writer, a mother, a teacher, an activist, a feminist (the kind that considers intersections, because identity is complicated, as this post shows), a lover of books, art, food, music, and the outdoors. I am a survivor of domestic violence. I am the director of the Elizabeth Ayres Center for Creative Writing, and I also work in the department of Peace & Conflict Studies at a small liberal arts college. I'm central Pennsylvania, born and raised, though I moved around the country a lot between college and having my son. But check out this mountain view of my town:

Who wouldn't want to come back here? You should've seen the fireworks from this spot...

Anyway. Besides the fact that trees are my church and books are my sacred objects, I will say that writing is so tethered to my identity that I occasionally feel bitter about having to do literally anything else. Such is life.

The existential crisis makes its presence known when I try to define myself further. Trauma--the twin traumas of delivering my son very prematurely, and of having been in abusive relationship with my son's father--have had a tremendous impact on my existence in recent years. I am, frankly, a person torn in two. There is the me before trauma, and the me after. I'm still finding my way.

And I'm on an upswing. Life is going on, as life does, and I'm along for the ride. I climb mountains and gorge on local vegetables. I read and make up silly dances with my son Jax, who will be 5 in October. I make words have meaning, and I help other writers find the meaning in their own words. I rock out in my car (ok, everywhere) like it's 1995, and according to my playlists, it still is.

I will blog here about what it means to endure hardship and come back to being a person again, whether through yoga or cooking or parenting or striving after that elusive work-life balance. My first blog is another writing mom, which is mainly about writing, so I look forward to branching out a little bit here.

Thanks for reading, and I look forward to getting to know some of you, too.